Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 402,900 shares, a growth of 44.4% from the February 28th total of 279,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 671,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.6 days.

Insider Activity at Priority Technology

In other news, Director John Vito Priore sold 3,454,575 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total transaction of $25,702,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,314,430 shares in the company, valued at $39,539,359.20. This represents a 39.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Ranjana Ram sold 6,615 shares of Priority Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.44, for a total value of $49,215.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 686,389 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,106,734.16. This trade represents a 0.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,122,431 shares of company stock worth $38,110,887 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 76.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Priority Technology

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRTH. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Priority Technology by 6.1% during the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 22,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 1,293 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in Priority Technology by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 23,706 shares of the company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 1,964 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in Priority Technology by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 8,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 3,006 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Priority Technology by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 29,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 3,063 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Priority Technology by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 39,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 4,366 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.52% of the company’s stock.

Priority Technology Stock Up 1.0 %

PRTH traded up $0.07 during trading on Monday, hitting $6.82. 1,010,980 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 252,888. Priority Technology has a fifty-two week low of $2.82 and a fifty-two week high of $12.47. The stock has a market cap of $542.32 million, a P/E ratio of -16.24 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50 day moving average is $9.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.54.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price objective (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Priority Technology in a report on Friday, March 7th. TD Cowen raised Priority Technology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th.

About Priority Technology

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) Payments, Business-To-Business (B2B) Payments, and Enterprise Payments. It offers SMB payments processing solutions for B2C transactions through independent sales organizations, financial institutions, independent software vendors, and other referral partners through its MX product suite, which includes MX Connect and MX Merchant products, such as MX Insights, MX Storefront, MX Retail, MX Invoice, MX B2B and ACH.com, and others, which provides flexible and customizable set of business applications that helps to manage critical business work functions and revenue performance to resellers and merchant clients using core payment processing.